Published byStanford Medicine

Women’s Health

The health-care industry needs to pay much more attention to women. That’s the argument laid out in a recent piece on MedCity News, which shared findings of a survey (.pdf) from the Center for Talent Innovation. That report shows that women make the majority of health-care decisions but are inadequately equipped to do so, and it calls on health-care companies, which are increasingly oriented towards consumers, to bridge that gap.

According to the survey, which included more than 9,200 respondents from the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, and Brazil, 94 percent of women make decisions for themselves and 59 percent make decisions for others; when working moms are considered separately, 94 percent make decisions for others. And yet, 58 percent of these decision makers lack confidence in their decision making.

The report says this is due to “three profound famines”: lack of time, lack of knowledge, and lack of trust. Seventy-seven percent of women don’t know what they need to do to stay healthy; 62 percent lack the time. Only 38 percent of working mothers passed a “health literacy quiz,” and the report showed that women are unlikely to trust online information (31 percent), their insurance companies (22 percent), or pharmaceutical companies (17 percent).

The report suggests that health-care companies need to understand women in the context of their family and career responsibilities, which is quite different from standard male-based “life stage analysis.” Moreover, they need to understand that women think about health more broadly than freedom from illness and health risks. Fully 79 percent said that health means “having spiritual and emotional wellbeing,” while 77 percent called it “being physically fit and well rested.”

An excellent place to start change is the management structure of health-care companies, the report suggests. Despite being the “CMOs” (Chief Medical Officers) for their families, women are underrepresented in other “C-level” roles in these companies:

We find that, while the health-care industry employs a large number of female professionals, their ideas, insights, and capabilities haven’t been fully supported, endorsed, and promoted. Without women in power, women’s ideas don’t get the audience they deserve, because… leaders only see value in ideas they personally relate to or see a need for.

MedCity news writer Nina Ruhe sums up another area for improvement. “Doctors, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies can start instilling trust in women again by letting them know exactly what they should know in regards to their personal health and the health of their families,” she writes.

Earlier this week I reported from the Women’s Health Forum, held on Monday for the sixth year running. The hardest part about attending the event was deciding which among all the interesting talks to attend.

Among the many sessions, the two that most piqued my interest focused on women’s mental health. Katherine (Ellie) Williams, MD, spoke about mood disorders related to the menstrual cycle, and Laraine Zappert, PhD, discussed the psychological impact of sexual assault. Both are from the school’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Williams’ talk began with a cartoon of a dishwasher bursting with dishes, clothes, a phone, a vacuum – above a caption quip about PMS. The out-of-control energy of the sketch conveys the affective thundercloud often associated with women and their “hormones.” Williams identified three periods when this thundercloud may be an actual mood disorder, as opposed to “normal” fluctuations: pre-menstrual, perinatal, and perimenopausal.

Technically speaking, “PMS” is about physical symptoms and is fairly common, whereas pre-menstrual dysphoric disorders (PMDDs) is all about mood and affects less than 5 percent of women. The disruption happens in the luteal phase of a woman’s cycle, usually the two weeks after ovulation – this is a big chunk of time we’re talking about, nearly 50 percent! Treatments for disorders in all periods include exercise, acupuncture, and diet supplements, and pharmaceuticals like certain birth control pills and antidepressants (which interestingly work differently for women with PMDD than for people in general – when taken only during that luteal phase, they have fast onset time and cause no withdrawal symptoms).

Researchers are learning more about how to predict and prevent cycle-related mood disorders, and increasingly it is clear that life context plays a major role. Stressful life events, interpersonal conflicts, marital tension, and previous mental-health instabilities (from being a perfectionist to having suffered childhood abuse or major depressive breakdowns) are the primary risk factors. This knowledge means clinical practitioners have to think much more broadly about how to help women, particularly in terms of prevention, Williams said.

Last spring, I traveled to Washington, D.C. for my first experience as a citizen-activist, lobbying in Congress for the rights and well-being of women and LGBT individuals in the developing world. I recently returned there to see some of the impact of that work – crucial new appointees, new legislators in support of key issues and new words of encouragement from both sides of the political aisle.

I visited Washington as part of a 170-person delegation from the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), an international organization that promotes human rights and seeks to end poverty in developing countries. Our goal was to advance several initiatives, including passage of the International Violence Against Women Act, and changes to ensure that U.S. foreign contracts and foreign aid programs do not discriminate against LGBT individuals.

I was thrilled to hear a talk by Randy Berry, the State Department’s first-ever Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Persons, who assumed the new post in February. Just a year ago, AJWS had made the appointment of a special envoy one of its priority issues, and many of us, myself included, had met with our Congressional representatives to push for the position. I had been motivated by my experiences as an AJWS Global Justice Fellow in Uganda in 2014, when we met with LGBT activists who were living in a climate of terror because of the country’s impending anti-gay law. We heard stories of people who had been raped, beaten, harassed, evicted from homes and jobs and subjected to summary arrest.

I realized it was important to make LGBT rights a priority issue for U.S. foreign policy. Berry, the new U.S. envoy, said AJWS had been a “prime mover” in the creation of his new office – gratifying news indeed. He said he views LGBT rights as a “core human rights issue.”

“We are talking about equality, and it should go hand-in-hand with what we are doing in gender equality and in the disabled community,” he told us. “One of the most disturbing elements of discrimination is that it’s the first step to denying one’s humanity.”

He acknowledged that he has a daunting job ahead; while the U.S. is making swift progress on gay rights, these rights are just as swiftly being eroded in other parts of the world. Nearly 80 countries now criminalize same-sex behavior, with penalties that include death or life in prison. Yet the fact that the U.S. has made so much progress in recent decades suggests it’s possible to change the climate elsewhere as well, he said.

“Who would have dreamed 20 years ago that we would be where we are today in the United States,” he said. “I am sitting here today with the support of the State Department, the president and members on both sides of the aisle.”

We also saw progress on the International Violence Against Women Act, which would make ending violence against women worldwide a top U.S. diplomatic and development priority. Violence against women and girls is alarmingly pervasive, with as many as one in three being beaten, coerced into sex or subjected to other abuse in her lifetime.

The legislation was reintroduced in the House of Representatives in March with a record 18 co-sponsors, including many more Republicans than in the past. On the morning of our lobbying visits, we heard from seven Members of Congress, including Chris Gibson (R-NY), Richard Hanna (R-NY) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY), all of whom expressed strong support for the bill. David Cicilline (D-RI) described a trip to Liberia in which he met a group of young girls who had been subjected to “hideous, indescribable sexual violence.”

“It made me realize we need to do everything we can to change the lives of these young girls,” he told us.

This Monday was the sixth annual Stanford Women’s Health Forum, hosted by Stanford’s Women and Sex Differences in Medicine center (WSDM), and I was happy to have been present for the lively talks. The forum focused on prevention, and the keynote, delivered by Marcia Stefanick, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and WSDM director, highlighted physical activity and weight management as the key preventative actions for women to take.

High blood pressure remains the number one preventable cause of death in women, with physical inactivity and high BMI, both of which contribute to high blood pressure, in third and fourth place. (For the curious readers, smoking comes in second.) Because prevention requires changes in behavior, behavior was what Stefanick focused on. Rather than reinforcing many women’s feelings of embarrassment about their weight, she said, providers should help women feel that they can do something about it.

Healthier behaviors must include diet and exercise. Both fatness and low fitness cause higher mortality; realistic expectations about how to change both should factor into care. Stefanick emphasized that weight loss should be slow: 10 percent of one’s body weight baseline over six months, or one pound per week for moderately overweight people, and no more than two pounds per week. And we need to stop being so sedentary, Stefanick exclaimed. The classic principles of exercise apply – gradually increase the frequency, intensity, and/or duration of exertion. Adults should be getting at least two and a half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, in addition to doing muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week, the conference flyer read.

However, citing the problems of eating disorders and older women losing weight without trying, Stefanick stressed that “weight management is a spectrum; there are extremes at both ends.” In describing variations on mesomorphic, endomorphic, and ectomorphic body types, she stated that “we don’t know what the optimal body type is.” It probably varies for each person.

Something I found particularly interesting was Stefanick’s description of gynoid vs android fat distribution patterns (which I learned as “pear” and “apple” body shapes, respectively). Gynoid distribution around the hips, thighs, and butt is more common in women, and includes more subcutaneous fat, while in android distribution, which is more common in men, fat collects around the belly and chest and is actually dispersed among the organs. Such intra-abdominal fat is more damaging to health, as it affects the liver and lipid profile and can cause heart disease, but it’s also much easier to get rid of through exercise (which is one reason men overall have less trouble losing weight than women).

In the spirit of more personalized care, Stefanick also discussed how recommended weight changes during pregnancy should vary according to the person’s prenatal BMI. Someone underweight could gain up to 40 pounds and be healthy, she pointed out, while obese people might actually lose weight during pregnancy for optimal mother-baby health.

After exercise class the other day, my friend asked if I wanted to grab coffee and get our nails done. With nail salons on what seems like every block, having a manicure or pedicure is as easy as grabbing a latte. You don’t need an appointment and you’re done in less than an hour.

But this convenience comes at a cost. A recent investigative report in the New York Times exposed the not-so-bright side of nail salons. The articles have raised awareness of poor working conditions and health risks, and they’ve generated a vigorous public dialogue.

An epidemiologist, Quach has spent much of her career studying harmful chemicals in nail care products and their health impacts on nail salon workers, a vulnerable workforce that is mainly comprised of low-income immigrants. In research studies she has conducted over time, Quach identified symptoms commonly experienced by salon workers, including dizziness, rashes, and respiratory difficulties, and more serious reproductive health effects and cancer.

“Unfortunately, the risks associated with chronic, long-term exposure to chemicals used in nail products have been little studied,” Quach said. “We know workers are exposed every day and their health is at risk – this is an important focus of my ongoing research.”

The California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative (CHNSC), convened through Asian Health Services, educates salon owners, workers and consumers about health and safety issues, and advocates for stronger protections for all. Quach, who has been a CHNSC member since its inception, works closely with other members to address worker health and safety using an integrated approach of community outreach, research, and policy advocacy to address health and safety. The CHNSC has worked at the local, state, and federal level to promote changes.

Encouraging counties and cities to adopt the healthy nail salon program is a first step in their local approach. Participation is voluntary and to date three counties and one city have committed: Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Monica. These counties provide training and formal recognition for salons that participate. Santa Clara has the program in the works and many salons throughout the state participate in healthy initiatives on their own.

In addition to local municipalities taking action, some manufacturers have stepped up to omit the “toxic trio” – dibutyl phthalate, toluene and formaldehyde – from their formulations. But despite rising awareness of the health hazards posed by these chemicals, many products still contain them and there is no regulatory oversight.

Imagine a prehistoric human mother raising her baby outside of any community or family structure, with no help from others. It sure doesn’t fit with my idea of the “village” that raises a child, a phrase I often associate with romantic notions of pre-modern lifestyles. But according to a study done by University of Utah anthropologist Karen Kramer, PhD, if you go far back enough in human evolution, mothers raised their young alone and didn’t feed or care for them past weaning (which happened around 5 or 6 years of age!).

The study, published in the Journal of Human Evolution and interestingly titled “When mothers need others: The impact of hominin life history evolution on cooperative breeding,” examines how humans transitioned into family and community patterns of child rearing. It suggests that the earliest cooperative groups were formed by a mother and many of her children, with older ones helping rear younger siblings; after this was established, other adults were incorporated, probably when bands of mothers with their offspring teamed up. As women became better at reproducing, they needed the extra help.

As noted in a University of Utah press release, this is different from the predominating theories among anthropologists, which point to cooperation among adults. Kramer also comments:

Human mothers are interesting. They’re unlike mothers of many other species because they feed their children after weaning and others help them raise their children. As an anthropologist, I live and work in traditional societies where, like other researchers, I have observed many times that it takes a village to raise a child. Not only do mothers work hard to care for their young, but so do her older children, grandmothers, fathers and other relatives. But this wasn’t always the case.

The consequences for health likely factored into the “economic decision making” that Kramer modeled in her study – children reared cooperatively were more likely to survive, and I imagine mothers garnered more than a few benefits from extra pairs of eyes, ears, hands, and feet, as well.

And another thing this study shows us: Some of the same decisions that parents weigh today – how many children to have, which kind of help to recruit in raising them, and what kind of balance between kids and other pursuits will optimize health – are really not so novel.

Gender matters in medical research. That’s the reasoning behind the Research for All Act (.pdf), a recently introduced Congressional bill that would require scientists conducting NIH-funded research to look at male and female animals and cells. The legislation would also require the FDA “to guarantee that clinical drug trials for expedited drug products are sufficient to determine safety and effectiveness for both men and women.”

Women compose more than half the U.S. population, but most medical research focuses exclusively on men…

For example, the unique way women metabolize drugs was ignored when researchers determined the dosage for Ambien sleeping pills; as a result, the initial recommended dosage was double what it should have been for women.

Additionally, cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of all Americans, but only one-third of subjects in cardiac clinical trials are women.

Including gender analysis in research can save us from life-threatening errors… and can lead to new discoveries. Gender analysis has led to better treatments for heart disease in women. Identifying the genetic mechanisms of ovarian determination has enhanced knowledge about testis development. Analysing how sex affects donor–recipient matching is improving stem-cell therapies. And exploring how sex-specific biological factors and gender-specific behaviours interact has helped researchers to understand how nutrients trigger cell functions, and may assist in the fight against obesity.

Evolutionarily speaking, sex is one of the most well-conserved biological differences, of fundamental importance to 100 percent of the population. Paying more attention to it, the authors claim, would help biomedical research disaggregate data and explain heterogenous outcomes. While some think it would create unnecessary duplication to account for sex earlier in the research process, before drugs and treatments are tested on humans, the authors argue that such practices would save money and be more efficient in the long run. Early tests are far less expensive than removing something from the market because it has adverse effects on half the population. Moreover, preventing such adverse outcomes would keep people of both sexes safer and healthier.

The article states that the FDA is beginning to reconsider whether unisex dosing is accurate and safe for many drugs, and cites that “about 80% of rodent drug studies are conducted only on males, and 8 of 10 drugs withdrawn from the US market from 1997 to 2000 posed greater health risks for women than for men.”

We’ve partnered with Inspire, a company that builds and manages online support communities for patients and caregivers, to launch a patient-focused series here on Scope. Once a month, patients affected by serious and often rare diseases share their unique stories; this month’s column comes from heart patient Carolyn Thomas.

My doctor once compared my uneasy adjustment to life as a heart patient with being like a stressful move to a foreign country.

I used to be pretty comfortable living in my old country, pre-heart attack. I had a wonderful family and close friends, a public relations career I loved, a nice home – and a busy, happy, healthy, regular life.

Then on May 6, 2008, I was hospitalized with what doctors call a “widowmaker” heart attack.

And that was the day I moved far, far away to a different country.

Many who are freshly diagnosed with a chronic and progressive illness feel like this. The late Jessie Gruman, PhD, who spent decades as a patient, described in a Be a Prepared Patient Forum column that sense of being drop-kicked into a foreign country: “I don’t know the language, the culture is unfamiliar, I have no idea what is expected of me, I have no map, and I desperately want to find my way home.”

Deported to the foreign country called Heart Disease, I too found that nothing around me felt familiar or normal anymore once I was home from hospital.

I felt exhausted and anxious at the same time, convinced by ongoing chest pain, shortness of breath and crushing fatigue that a second heart attack was imminent. I felt a cold, low-grade terror on a daily basis.

Instead of feeling happy and grateful because I had survived what many do not, I frightened myself by weeping openly over nothing in particular. I slept in my clothes. I didn’t care how I looked or how I smelled. I had no interest in reading, walking, talking, showering or even getting out of bed. Everything seemed like just way too much trouble.

Where once I had been competent, I now felt unsure.

Where once I had made decisions with sure-footed speed, I now seemed incapable of deciding anything.

And my worried family and friends couldn’t even begin to comprehend what was going on for me – because I could scarcely understand it myself. Sensing their distress, I tried to paste on my bravest smiley face around them so we could all pretend that everything was “normal” again. But making even minimal conversation felt so exhausting that it eventually seemed so much easier to just avoid others entirely.

In sub-Saharan Africa, maternal and neonatal outcomes are some of the worst in the world. What would happen to those numbers if 1,000 new obstetrician/gynecologists were trained with state-of-the-art educational materials in the region over the next ten years? The 1000+OBGYN Project, a collaborative training effort between American and African universities, aims to do just that.

A UM press release published today describes the new contributions, which cover a diverse range of subjects, including abnormal uterine bleeding, pregnancy complications, vaginal surgeries, pelvic masses, newborn care, postpartum care and family planning. The materials are all free, publicly available, and licensed for students, teachers and practitioners to modify according to their own curricular context.

Frank Anderson, MD, MPH, associate professor in the UM Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of the 1000+OBYGN Project, comments in the release:

There is an urgent need to train Obgyns [sic] in sub-Saharan Africa, but their institutions don’t always have access to the same body of educational materials as doctors in developed countries have… Many newborn and maternal deaths are preventable. We want to ensure that future Obgyns in low resource countries have access to the same high-quality learning materials available here so they are equipped to provide the best care possible for mothers and babies.

The project hopes to overcome local barriers to good education, such as availability of training materials, licensing costs, and unreliable internet access. To make the materials available offline, the initiative partnered with the Global Library of Women’s Medicine, which compresses research onto USB flash drives and distributes them globally, particularly to women’s health professionals in Africa.